London 2012: The ‘Socialympics’

Are you a fan of the Roman Rings? Think archery is one of the most nail-biting sports ever? Or maybe you just like blended made-up names like Brangelina or TomKat (as ill-fated as that was).

Well standby Australia, the “Socialympics” are coming!

That’s right, the London Olympics are being touted as the first truly social media savvy Games. Ponder this, last time we stopped by Beijing for the Olympics, tablet devices like iPads didn’t even exist in the market!

In this brave new world where we Instagram our toasted sandwich lunch or tweet about which singer should be The Voice, the upcoming Olympics are set to be a game changer (pardon the pun). With Australians loving to “multi-screen” whilst watching TV, the Olympics are going to become more interactive than ever before.

You no longer need to take leave days, stockpile the energy drinks and buy that extra leopard print throw rug in preparation of staying up all night to catch Olympics action live – these days you can keep up to date with the synchronised swim team 24/7 ! So here’s our guide to going for gold this Olympiad.

The Facebook Olympics Hub

Facebook has unveiled a London 2012 Hub – a launch site that can 10m springboard you on to all the official pages for your favourite athletes, national teams and events. It’s your one stop shop for finding links to Eamon Sullivan in his budgie smugglers, the Aussie Team resplendent in their green blazers and Dunlop Volleys, or to parry your way into some non-barbed wire Fencing.

If you’re more of a traditionalist, who likes your track with a dash of field, then you may like to check out the official London 2012 website, http://www.london2012.com/?tw_p=twt.

Online athlete communities – go for badge collecting glory

Admit it, everything becomes a thousand fold more exciting when you can earn a badge for your social media page. Well the Olympic Athletes Hub lets you do just that, rewarding you with badges and prizes and allowing you to compete to be the ultimate Olympics fan. It’s also a centralised site for searching for any athlete, bringing up a directory of all official Facebook and Twitter accounts. More than 1,000 athletes have pole vaulted on-board this site so far.

And though we often do, let’s not forget Google+ – they also have an interactive London2012 page.

For a more local flavour, Channel 9’s Wide World of Sports has launched a competition site called Social Games. Simply by sharing, posting, tweeting, commenting on stories or playing trivia, you can compete for badges, with a top prize of $10,000 or weekly prize draws of $1,000. You can also set diary reminders of when your favourite events will be shown live or alerts for when the online footage gets uploaded.

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Tweet Tweet Tweet

The official Twitter feeds include @London2012 and @Olympics. To follow what the Aussies are up to, check out @AUSOlympicTeam, or support your heroes of the pool by following @SwimmingAUS. The IOC have also set up a Olympians Twitter list, so you can follow tweets from global athletes all in one place.

Girt by sea, in high def

Want to relive the athletes miming and mumbling their way through the national anthem? Then head over to the Australian Olympic team’s official You Tube channel for replays, interviews and notable videos.

Social TV – Jump on in

You may recall our recent article on Channel 7’s Fango social TV app, which lets you interact live with other TV show fans. Well, just in time for the Olympics, Channel 9 will be rolling out its own social TV app called Jump In. It promises to add a whole new layer of audience engagement to the Olympics viewing experience. The Modern Pentathlon has never looked so exciting!

Which events are you most looking forward to seeing? Will you be tweeting your own commentary from the couch? Let us know in the comments!

Charisse Whitehead works in our Marketing Insights Team. A self-confessed digital media devotee, she's also a massive fan of The IT Crowd, so often asks the philosophical question: "have you tried turning it off and on again?"

One comment

There’s no way this old body could ever compete in an Olympics (even when it was a young body). But the luge has alayws attracted me to try. As for watching, I’m a girl I love watching the ice skating events. I never even figured how to glide a few steps. Watching them dance and leap on ice fascinates me.And you will get through school. Really!

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